Emily had spent the past few days giving a lot of consideration to what Garcia had told her. The simple truth was that the other woman was right. Emily had been hiding. It wasn't intentional, it never was, but she was just so concerned about everything else that she hadn't really talked about what happened to her. She hadn't really talked about what it was like to be terrified for weeks before Doyle came for her. She hadn't really talked about what it felt like to walk away from that briefing room, knowing she might never come back. She hadn't really talked about the stress of feeling her team was in danger. She hadn't talked about the terror of being abducted. She hadn't talked about waking up in the hospital, and being told she was dead and had to go on the run.

At the time, it had felt akin to death, maybe even worse. She hadn't talked about the black abyss she had experienced after being stabbed, and how that at the very least she thought she was doomed to an afterlife of purgatory. At first, purgatory felt like a relief. She had felt responsible for years about Matthew's downfall. Then, she had essentially prostituted herself for a job. On top of all of that, she had been privy to and involved with Doyle's crimes. And then just as suddenly as she left, she was back in D.C. She was back in the BAU, and the only people she felt who really loved her didn't trust her any longer. She had to win them back. She had to explain. It was hard to explain, to soothe away their grief before she could even process her own. It weighed on her. It was true, what she had told Reid a year prior. He had grieved one friend. She had grieved five, and there was a lot more grief for her.

All of that…Maybe it did make her feel she didn't deserve a second chance. And maybe because of that, she didn't really give a lot of time to herself. Now she had found herself pregnant, and she needed to be good for the sake of the baby. But also, maybe she deserved to be good for herself.

He had been waiting for her in the doctor's office's parking lot. They had driven from Quantico together, but she had forgotten her phone in her car. Mick had watched as she quickly rushed back to her car to grab it. That was when she had been stopped but a tall, blonde guy parked next to her. She had laughed, and Mick couldn't help but feel a little hatred for the smarmy bastard.

"You flirt with dodgy men in car parks now, eh?" Mick asked after she had made her way back to him.

"Who?" Emily replied, completely confused what he was talking about.

Mick crossed his arms at her question, obviously not believing her, "Blondie over there."

"I definitely did not, but are you…jealous?" Emily asked with a smirk and raised eyebrow.

"I don't get jealous."

"Right," She sarcastically drawled.

"I don't."

"Mhmm," She replied noncommittally, noticing as he looked her up and down.

"I'm glad the trousers are back. I missed them," He winked with a haughty grin.

She narrowed her eyes at his gaze, "Don't look at my pants," She warned before she crossed her arms and bit her bottom lip. "And don't look at me like at that."

"Like what?"

"You know exactly what I mean."

"Well…Look where we are, love," He laughed and outstretched his arms, gesturing to the concrete outside front of the medical office they were about to walk inside.

She opted to ignore his very correct observation. "JJ made me paranoid," Emily admitted with a small huff.

"What she say?" Mick asked as the two walked into the office lobby, their strides in step with one and other.

"She said when she was pregnant with Henry he was in the wrong position. They couldn't know the sex for another two weeks or something."

Mick abruptly stopped at the comment, "Wrong position? I didn't know that was possible. What if we just gave you a quick shake?"

"Try to touch me again and it'll be your last," Emily threatened with a grin.

"It came in then," Mick said, nodding toward her small bump.

"Uh, yeah."

"Does it have a bounce around in there?"

"Not yet," Emily remarked a little distracted as she signed in. They had opted not to sit down in the hard gray chairs placed around the perimeter of the waiting room, but rather stand near the hallway that would take them back to the examination room. It had kind of become their habit— Known throughout the office as the two agents who never sat down.

"Bit lazy then, eh?"

Emily chuckled at the comment, "Yeah. Wonder where they learned that from."

"You, obviously," Mick teased.

"Said the man who went from sitting all day on a roof to sitting all day in an office."

"I was a proper Bond," He shot back in a fake offended voice.

"Maybe 'Frank Bond,' James's overconfident, lazier, cousin," Emily playfully mocked as they were called back to the white exam room.

"I squatted on that roof. Get it right."

Fairly used to the process by then, Emily arranged herself on the exam chair as Mick stood next to her. Emily had fixed her eyes on the blank black screen, and nervously picked at her nails. She was slightly annoyed by Mick's foot's incessant tapping, but didn't say anything. She was nervously excited too. Everything thus far had been a surprise, it was nice to hopefully have some fixed information for once.

"You've made me go bloody mad," He commented before shuffling around a little in place. "Now I'm worried they won't see it either."

"Blame JJ."

"I do," Mick laughed and ran his hand through his messy hair. "Can we come back tomorrow if she doesn't know?"

"Doubt it."

"Why not?"

Emily chuckled at the man, "She has other patients."

"Who cares about them," Mick deadpanned, eliciting a laugh from the brunette woman. "If we have a boy are we naming it after its father?"

"I don't know if I would be comfortable naming a child Satan Jr."

"Hey, what did I tell ya about that?" Mick slightly scolded in reply to Emily's joke. "I prefer to be called Beelzebub."

Emily's laughter was cut off when the older, blonde technician entered into the exam room and straightened out her pink scrubs, "Good afternoon, Agents." The woman had pointed out the baby's hands and features of its face, all along the way both Mick and Emily looked at each other confused. Despite repeating "yeah" over and over again as if they knew what they were looking at, it still just looked like an oval cellophane wrapper.

"And here are baby's legs," The technician pointed out. "Are you two hoping for anything?"

"No," Emily quickly answered, but Mick proved to be more thoughtful.

"If we were to have a lad, she might be up for another to get her girl she pretends not to want—" The word another stuck out in Emily's head. Another? Where did that come from? "—But a wee Emily Prentiss would be a very interesting prospect. That would be almost too irresistible," He added with a laugh.

"Better a mini me than a mini you," Emily shot back with a grin, ignoring 'another.'

"We'll have to ask your mum about that, love," He teased. Normally, a comment like that might inadvertently bring up some hurt, but it didn't when Mick said it. Maybe because he already knew there was complicated history there, but still treated her the same as he would anyone else.

"Well," The technician laughed a little before directing the two's attention back to the screen. "If you see right here—" She pointed but they couldn't see anything "—Nothing there. So you two are having a little girl."

"Oh, thank god," Emily breathed out, and watched as Mick's eyes lit up. Okay, maybe they had really wanted a girl after all. Emily trained her attention back on the giggling technician. "We would have loved a boy—"

"—No, we wouldn't," Mick laughed with a smirk. "Thanks for telling us."

"When I was outside the room I overheard that you two were a little nervous. I was this close to telling you I couldn't see anything at first," The tech joked.

"Good thing you didn't," Mick said as he nodded over towards Emily. "This one carries a gun."

"And he has a stapler," Emily had added with a lopsided grin, earning a shake of the head from Mick.

After they had departed, Emily had walked into the BAU to find JJ, Garcia, and Reid crowding around her desk. Apparently Morgan was out for the afternoon, because otherwise he surely would've been there too.

"Can I help you?" Emily asked in a tone that meant she wasn't really asking them, before she slipped into her desk chair. She was barely able to get in and avoid JJ, who was once again sitting on her desk. She felt she needed to break JJ of that habit.

"Come on, Em," JJ groaned and sharply exhaled. "We know you know. Why are you doing this to us?"

Emily couldn't help but chuckle at the palpable excitement, but was shocked there was so little coming from Garcia. "Garcia?"

"I'm only here just in case you spill, but," She emphasized with a raise of her finger, "I would not be opposed to waiting for a gender reveal party. I'm thinking we get some bal—"

"—I'm having a girl," Emily quickly spit out. She was most definitely not having a 'gender reveal' party. It was bad enough she was getting a baby shower.

"Yes!" JJ raised her fist in the air triumphantly. Reid nodded along in agreement. The BAU boy curse was broken.

"Are all you crazy people happy now? You got your girl," Emily laughed again. She really did love how excited the team was for her. Plus, she had to admit it would be nice to have a little girl at their team outings. Henry and Jack were adorable, but she hoped she would have a little girl who picked flowers with Reid instead of watching three boys running around, terrorizing the rest of the group with Morgan. "I think I broke Garcia." She added as she poked Garcia's arm, wondering why the other woman was barely able to speak.

"I— I—" Garcia sputtered. "I had hoped, but was expecting— I never thought— I have to go shopping right now!" The technical analyst moved to hug Emily and had run off to finally buy all the baby stuff she had desperately wanted to get for years. Sure, she had bought some of the stuff for Henry anyway, as far as she was concerned boys could wear pink too, but Will had refused to dress the boy in them. Will… "Mick would never betray me like that," Garcia mumbled to herself as she headed out for a late lunch at the baby store.

"That was surprisingly low-key," Emily smiled to the other two profilers, before she heard Morgan's booming voice calling out.

"What are we having, Princess?!"

Reid cringed a little at the other man's loud voice, "You spoke too soon."

"So dumb," JJ said and pointed up to Reid to show she agreed with him.

Mick had brought over Chinese to Emily's later that night. He had just had it a week or so ago, but she had finally gotten to the point where she could have it without the smell making her sick, and, well, that was the weird part. He knew that. He knew a lot about her daily schedule. He was there for a lot of her daily schedule. He spent a lot of time with her. He would see her at least twice a week, unless she was traveling, and even if she was traveling they would talk most nights. They hadn't ever gone out for a date, but he also didn't know how much different it was than dating. Wasn't dating getting to know someone else and spending time together? Granted, they never went out together, but that also just made Emily Prentiss the most low-maintenance woman out there.

However, he was sure that at the end of a dating process there was an endgame. Mick wasn't the most experienced when it came to actual relationships, but there didn't seem to be an endpoint for them. After getting to know each other it wasn't like Emily was going to be with him. She was adamant about that. That being said, he did call Penelope Garcia about the situation and was told that while she wouldn't interfere too much and respect any decision Emily would make, that he should be patient. Actually, her exact works were: You've already been upfront with what you want so be patient. Emily is a baby deer. She needs time to come around. And if you really want to be with her, don't be such a….man-whore. It had only been around six months since they had started sleeping together, and Emily had been pregnant for four of those months. He did kind of get it.

So that was how Mick Rawson found himself once again at Emily's apartment at night, on the opposite side of Emily's sofa, eating Chinese with her.

"Gwyneth?" He suggested and Emily shook her head.

"Paltrow."

"Olivia?"

"I like it, but is that a bit trendy?"

Mick looked up towards Emily's ceiling and contemplated the question. He didn't think so, but he was more into sports than pop culture. "I'd like her to have a British name if that's fine with you." Emily merely nodded to signal her agreement. She liked classic names. She wanted to use a name where her daughter could have any job and not sound young. "Effy?"

"Absolutely not," Emily almost choked on her broccoli.

"Not as her full name. It's for—"

"—I know what it's short for. Mick, I am not naming my baby after my mother."

Mick scratched his jaw at the problem. He did really like the name 'Effy.' Effy Prentiss-Rawson, "Elizabeth 'Effy' Prentiss-Rawson, it's the girl's last remaining gran."

"No," Emily bit back. She could get on board with the hyphen, but nothing else. "I'll give you Prentiss-Rawson, that's it. What about your mother's name?"

"My mum was called Nesta. It's a lovely name for Wales, but will give the poor girl a right kick in the arse here in the States."

"I'd sooner move to Wales and name her 'Nesta' than Elizabeth," Emily grumbled. Her persistent grumbling had earned a laugh from Mick.

"Would it kill ya to have an Elizabeth Prentiss you were close with?"

"I really like Meredith. What do you think?" Emily chose to ignore the valid question, prompting Mick to laugh.

"It's not 'Effy' but it's all right," Mick said as he leaned forward to put his half eaten box of shrimp on the coffee table. "Emily, why would you think I would make you feel guilty?"

"I thought you said you knew it wasn't your business?" Emily asked as she became even more tense. "That was months ago."

"What can I say, love? Your words run through my mind on the replay," He grinned before getting more serious again. "You told me some, but you didn't tell it all to me, did ya?"

Emily shook her head at the question, "Profilers."

"Go on then."

"It's complicated," Emily tentatively said. She nervously chewed on her bottom lip before hovering her fingers over her mouth to block it from Mick's view. The last thing she needed was for him to 'snog that nose.' For some reason, she couldn't quite explain in that moment, she had opted for honesty. "The guy was a new friend. He wasn't really my boyfriend, and it freaked him out."

"Must have been bloody terrifying."

"I was only fifteen," Emily admitted with a sigh, "I knew what I had to do. It was what I wanted to do, if I'm being honest. I didn't want to have a baby then. I knew that, but I needed someone there." Emily swallowed at the memory. She didn't have a great track record with people being there for her. "Matthew was my friend. He helped me find the doctor. He sat with me. He was always by my side. When the news came out to someone— He supported me. He made me feel like I mattered. Like it was okay that I had decided to make that decision." Mick just nodded at her words. "The whole experience, the response to it more than the actual abortion, it made him just stop believing in everything."

"In the church? In God?"

"Yeah," Emily inhaled sharply and shook her head at the memories. "We left. We moved on, and he fell into drugs."

Mick had been resting his arm on the back of the sofa, and moved to drop his head into his open hand, "Twenty-five years is a long time to feel guilty, innit?"

"I know logically…"

Mick focused his eyes on her, "But illogically?"

"There's still a part of me that wonders."

"You change completely from the person you were at fifteen," Mick stated in a gentle voice. "People change a lot, and so do beliefs. The church— You all were Catholic, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, there are a lot of reasons to have doubts. His may have started with you, but we both know there can be a bit more there, right? It's simple to say: this happened and this was the result, but we never really know do we? His burdens, drink or drug or both, they were bigger than yours. Some people's just are; genetics and all that. Why you're here and he isn't, there is no reason or fault behind it. There isn't a point where you can point and say: 'If I had done this.' That's what makes the addiction so hard."

Emily nodded along at his words. She knew he was right. She knew other people probably would have told her the same things before, but she had always seen it as her own private burden. It was a cross that she alone could bear. "I can't stand profilers," She finally spoke with a small smile.

"Oh, I think you like me a little more than you let on," Mick said more than a little cocky.

"Remember what you told the tech earlier about me carrying a gun," She warned, but her smile contradicted her tone. "So…I met someone today."

Mick tilted his head in confusion, bathed in the soft light of one of Emily's table lamps. "That's it. I'm coming out of sniper retirement."

Emily found herself laughing at his slight jealously, "It actually is about that. I met a woman named Alex Blake. She works out of the D.C. field office."

"You met a woman? I like where this is headed. About to be a proper tidy tale."

"Shut up," Emily scolded and leaned forward for a playful swat at the man. "Anyway, I was thinking of bringing her on to cover me during my maternity leave, but for just a quick second I thought about recommending you," Emily laughed. "It wouldn't be a good fit—"

"—No," Mick agreed a little too quickly.

"We could do worse?" Emily ventured carefully. "You don't have the right skill set, but you'd do well with the team. It'd drive Garcia crazy. I know she's married, but JJ too. Let's be honest."

Mick shrugged, "I don't go into the field anymore."

It had been meant to be an off-hand comment, but the tension in Mick's shoulders led her to believe that something else was there. "Something happened to you?" Emily more told than asked the man.

He took a few seconds to debate whether or not to tell her, but since she had told him about Italy, he felt he should return the favor. Open up to her: that's another thing the Oracle had told him. "Red cell was bloody fantastic, don't get me wrong. It was a struggle to be in the field. It reminded me of being in the field before."

"In Fallujah?"

"How did you know?"

"Profiler," Emily had simply shrugged. Sure enough, it was enough of an explanation for him.

"Right, well, you know how things were post-9/11 attacks. I'd get a list— Almost like a shop list. Kill list, what it is. Shooters shoot."

Emily took a deep breath at the statement, completely understanding what he was getting at, "Yeah."

"I was in Fallujah with Sam. Thought we had eyes on one of the pricks. Got it all confirmed. Turns out it was the wrong man."

"It happens," Emily soothed in a quiet voice.

"It does," Mick nodded and avoided eye contact. He focused on peeling the label from his water bottle instead. "We get another assignment. I go up top. It's all done up, but I hesitate. Arsehole detonates. That little fucker killed four soldiers— Four good guys...It happens. You'll say it, and I know it. Sam brought me on, but every time I go into the field I just can't forget it. Was able to get past it, until I'm back in it."

"Yeah."

"I thought counterterrorism would be fucking hell," He laughed and ran his hands through his hair. "When we got the sack I thought it would be like a death, eh? It let me leave the past in the past. Let me make my peace with it, without it being brought up everyday. It's a bit frustrating though because I was quite good at it."

"You were," Emily admitted softly.

"Had a woman hung up on me for years 'cause of it." He had winked, earning a gagging sound from Emily. "So, no, I won't be your 86th minute time-wasting sub. Thank you for offering," He finished sarcastically. The two had just sat with each other and traded a few genuine smiles before a yawn Emily wasn't able to suppress had prompted him to check his watch. It was already 10:30. "I should let you get all tucked up. Watch a bit of Homes Under The Hammer."

"Yeah," Emily admitted as she followed him off the sofa and walked him to her front door. "I should get ready for bed."

The two hugged by the front door, and Mick spoke up after inhaling the smell of Emily's hair. "Your hair smells absolutely lovely."

"It's because I wash my hair," Emily whispered back into his ear. "You should try it sometime."

Mick pulled back with a shocked look on his face and pointed to his head, "I do wash my hair. Paid thirty quid for this product."

"You should ask for your money back then," She playfully advised and fluffed his hair. "Thanks for coming over."

And just like that the night had ended, with Emily a little more confident she could send her daughter home with Mick Rawson.